Antonis Kotsakas (; born in 1947) is a Greek politician, former member of the

Greek Parliament The Parliament of the Hellenes (), commonly known as the Hellenic Parliament (), is the unicameral legislature of Greece, located in the Old Royal Palace, overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens. The parliament is the supreme democratic instit ...

for the

Panhellenic Socialist Movement The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK (; , ), is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012 it was one of the two major parties in the country, along with New Democracy, its main political r ...

(PASOK) for

Chios Chios (; , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greece, Greek list of islands of Greece, island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, tenth largest island in the Medi ...

and former minister. Now he is a member of

Syriza The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance (), best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA ( ; ; a pun on the Greek adverb , meaning "from the roots" or "radically"), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politi ...

. He was born in Thymiana in Chios but grew up in

Moschato Moschato () is a town and a suburb in the southwestern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Moschato-Tavros, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. Geography Mosch ...

. He worked as foreman in construction. He was a founding member of the

in 1974. In 1984 he became a member of the Central Committee of PASOK, a post in which he was reelected until 2009. He was elected as MP of Chios in the election of June 1989 and held this seat until 2000. In 1993-4 he was deputy minister of Labour and from 1994 to 1996 was Minister for the Aegean. In June 2011, he resigned as member of the National Council of PASOK over disagreements with the policies followed by the government of

George Papandreou George Andreas Papandreou (, , shortened to ''Giorgos'' () to distinguish him from his grandfather; born 16 June 1952) is an American-born Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2009 to 2011. He is currently serving as a ...

over the handling of the economic crisis of Greece and the agreements made with its creditors. He claimed that he didn't leave from PASOK, but that PASOK betrayed its ideas. He became a member of Syriza and along with other former politicians of PASOK, founded the Socialist Tendency in the party. In October 2015, he was elected to the Political Secretariat of Syriza. As a member of Syriza, he is considered to have helped with the organizing of other disappointed ex members of PASOK in Syriza.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotsakas, Antonis 1947 births Politicians from Athens Greek MPs 1989 (June–November) Greek MPs 1989–1990 Greek MPs 1990–1993 Greek MPs 1993–1996 Greek MPs 1996–2000 PASOK politicians Syriza politicians 21st-century Greek politicians Government ministers of Greece Living people